How can there even be any red states? I don't understand it.

[Muse]

I live in a town where almost nobody is registered Republican, in an extremely blue state (CA). I pay attention to the news. TFG is such a POS it's hard for me to understand why anybody would vote for him. The R party has sold its soul. They are vile, will do utterly unconscionable things for money and power. Biden's a decent man with decades of experience in service to his country.

How can there be all these red states? Why are there even swing states? It boggles my mind.

This occurred to me while reading this article, and particularly the reader comments. This link will work to get through the paywall for 14 days, i.e. until June 25, 2024:

Opinion | One Thing Everyone Is Missing About Hunter Biden’s Case

It has nothing to do with law or politics.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Stokely]

You are apparently surrounded by people who perceive actual reality.

I live in FL. As I have said, it's a purple county, thankfully....but I know my share of Maga types including most of my extended family.

If you talk to these people, you soon realize that they have their own reality. It is bolstered by their churches, by their so-called news, by their circles. The crazy garbage I have heard would make your head spin if you came in from your world it sounds like. For my own sanity I avoid those I can, and avoid political talk with those I can't.

 

[brycejones]

I live in a place where people are arguing against overtime pay for workers and using phrases like "letting the free market decide wages" or else small businesses will have to close.

Also a place where people bitch about the quality of the schools, but also say they will never ever vote for a millage increase because taxes are already too high in the state.

People are easily fooled it what it boils down to. I wish it was different but it isn't.

 

[Commodus]

Red in terms of basic conservatism I can understand (small government, big military, cautious on social issues). It's the particular strain of conservatism today that makes it baffling. The sheer unquestioning devotion to Trump; the xenophobia; the anti-intellectualism and even contrarianism (whatever you're for, I'm against).

And this state of affairs just isn't sustainable. When Trump goes, many of them will feel lost unless there's a clear successor. And whether they like it or not, the tide of history generally ebbs toward more diversity and acceptance, not less. I still believe that the Republican party risks reaching a tipping point in the future (say, 10-20 years from now) where the demographics have changed so much that there's no way it can win a federal election without changing its policies.

 

[evident]

I live in a very purple bucks county,PA and it's infuriating to run into idiotic magats. i live next to an open air shooting range too (that i do go to occasionally), their flyer is filled with qanon conspiracies and BS.

 

[vi edit]

Small towns create and curate small minds.
Some of us escape and grow. The rest stay and rot.

 

[trenchfoot]

Small towns create and curate small minds.
Some of us escape and grow. The rest stay and rot.

Isolation breeds insulation. Insulation breeds ignorance. Ignorance breeds fear, suspicion of outsiders and anger over being ignored by the powers that be, even as these folks don't want outsiders telling them how to live their lives.

These are the folks who are being exploited by the churches and conservative politicians. Being uninformed of what's happening outside their cloistered world, they become easy pickings for those who cram their political and religious views into the minds of their gullible victims. These folks with limited knowledge of the outside world are turned into virtual slaves of the conservative mindset. The lies the GOP conspirators spread out over the land becomes the truth for the uninformed.

Newly arrived immigrants who are religiously conservative are also prime pickings to be subjected to the likes of FOX and conservative AM talk radio because they too are unaware of those that would convince them to make decisions that are against their own best interests.

 

[Greenman]

I live in a town where almost nobody is registered Republican, in an extremely blue state (CA). I pay attention to the news. TFG is such a POS it's hard for me to understand why anybody would vote for him. The R party has sold its soul. They are vile, will do utterly unconscionable things for money and power. Biden's a decent man with decades of experience in service to his country.

How can there be all these red states? Why are there even swing states? It boggles my mind.

This occurred to me while reading this article, and particularly the reader comments. This link will work to get through the paywall for 14 days, i.e. until June 25, 2024:

Opinion | One Thing Everyone Is Missing About Hunter Biden’s Case

It has nothing to do with law or politics.

www.nytimes.com

Don't knock it till you've tried it. Moving to the south was the best decision I ever made. Fyi, I've only seen one Trump flag around here in the last year and a half, American flags are common.

 

[MrSquished]

 

[Jaskalas]

How can there even be any red states? I don't understand it.

How to even unpack this topic.....

First, you may have not gotten around or met people who are actually different from you. Group-think clouds judgement. It hides from us the things other people see, feel, and care about. Or maybe you are aware of their ideas, their crazy... but you cannot comprehend how they have these ideas in their heads.

Second, human minds DO NOT value objective reality. !@#$ the truth, we want our feels. How do you think religion formed in the first place? "They didn't know better". What makes you think people know better today? Stay with me and imagine that we are still cavemen. It is merely our institutions that define us and help us grow to become better. But our institutions are under assault.

Humans are tribal. It is in our nature to divide, to place our faith into various things. America after the Civil, and then World Wars, forged a strong national identity. A common cause united our people. Over time that identity, that purpose, erodes. We must secure our future by maintaining our institutions and protect them from human nature. That nature is to divide, and to believe things that are not real. We MUST have a strong grasp on education and communication lest our people stray so far as to break apart and become "others" from one another.

America's fatal flaw was telling a story of how we were not cavemen in need of proper instruction. It was to pretend that the truth would prevail even if no one guarded the truth. In the name of freedom we have abandoned our defenses. Very soon those seeds sown decades ago will be reaped. Our divisions made manifest as civil society yields to the use of force.

Red States exist because ape gonna ape.

 

[Stokely]

Ape is right.

I used to think growing up that nuclear weapons were the "big sticks" that the apes will destroy the world with. Now I think its social media.

Our veneer of social civilization is very thin. Covid just about unraveled things and that was a tiny blip compared to what's to come with climate change. I'll probably be gone before it crashes down, but I have kids, so it infuriates me to see assholes not only doing nothing, but denying the problem. See no evil, hear no evil, stick your head in 1955 sand.

 

[Moonbeam]

How to even unpack this topic.....

First, you may have not gotten around or met people who are actually different from you. Group-think clouds judgement. It hides from us the things other people see, feel, and care about. Or maybe you are aware of their ideas, their crazy... but you cannot comprehend how they have these ideas in their heads.

Second, human minds DO NOT value objective reality. !@#$ the truth, we want our feels. How do you think religion formed in the first place? "They didn't know better". What makes you think people know better today? Stay with me and imagine that we are still cavemen. It is merely our institutions that define us and help us grow to become better. But our institutions are under assault.

Humans are tribal. It is in our nature to divide, to place our faith into various things. America after the Civil, and then World Wars, forged a strong national identity. A common cause united our people. Over time that identity, that purpose, erodes. We must secure our future by maintaining our institutions and protect them from human nature. That nature is to divide, and to believe things that are not real. We MUST have a strong grasp on education and communication lest our people stray so far as to break apart and become "others" from one another.

America's fatal flaw was telling a story of how we were not cavemen in need of proper instruction. It was to pretend that the truth would prevail even if no one guarded the truth. In the name of freedom we have abandoned our defenses. Very soon those seeds sown decades ago will be reaped. Our divisions made manifest as civil society yields to the use of force.

Red States exist because ape gonna ape.

Actually this is a point of view that has its origins in apes gonna ape. It’s just another projection of your own hatred of your genetic heritage projected as universal flaws in human character. What makes them true is your false belief that you know who you really are. Take your pick: We are created in God’s image or we created Him in ours.

Your negativity rests in the fact you can’t believe you have been forgiven, that the notion of evil is a delusional belief that if believed creates that effect. The light at the end of the tunnel looks to you like another oncoming train. Relax and be happy.

 

[MrSquished]

Isolation breeds insulation. Insulation breeds ignorance. Ignorance breeds fear, suspicion of outsiders and anger over being ignored by the powers that be, even as these folks don't want outsiders telling them how to live their lives.

These are the folks who are being exploited by the churches and conservative politicians. Being uninformed of what's happening outside their cloistered world, they become easy pickings for those who cram their political and religious views into the minds of their gullible victims. These folks with limited knowledge of the outside world are turned into virtual slaves of the conservative mindset. The lies the GOP conspirators spread out over the land becomes the truth for the uninformed.

Newly arrived immigrants who are religiously conservative are also prime pickings to be subjected to the likes of FOX and conservative AM talk radio because they too are unaware of those that would convince them to make decisions that are against their own best interests.

Perfectly said.

Rural and xurban areas. Unfortunately while I have no issue with people wanting to live in less densely populated areas, the simple fact is people living in rural and xurban areas just don't evolve very well, ratio wise as a percentage of population. They end up evil. Of course most could have turned out better and not evil if they had a different situation growing up, but unfortunately, this is how evil rises and at this point we just have to deal with it. They are dragging this country down, and others, as we see in Europe and South America, etc...

 

[cytg111]

Looking at it from outside it seems quite clear that conservative propaganda networks has brainwashed half your voting base and by brainwashed I mean blown their brains out.

Looking at the Gaetz, the Marges and the Boeberts... Lets get real, these are flat-earth people.

Flat Earth People. You cant reason with this.

You have to be mentally unfit to think these are a good thing to have running around in government. It's a joke. It's what Fox and kin has done to you. And a failed educational system.

 

[MtnMan]

I live in a town where almost nobody is registered Republican, in an extremely blue state (CA). I pay attention to the news. TFG is such a POS it's hard for me to understand why anybody would vote for him. The R party has sold its soul. They are vile, will do utterly unconscionable things for money and power. Biden's a decent man with decades of experience in service to his country.

How can there be all these red states? Why are there even swing states? It boggles my mind.

This occurred to me while reading this article, and particularly the reader comments. This link will work to get through the paywall for 14 days, i.e. until June 25, 2024:

Opinion | One Thing Everyone Is Missing About Hunter Biden’s Case

It has nothing to do with law or politics.

www.nytimes.com

You need to get out more. You clearly live in a very sheltered bubble protecting you from the raging ignorance, bigotry, misogyny, and racism that is too often a family value, justified by religion.

 

[balloonshark]

I believe all the local newspapers, radio and tv in most red states are owned by right-wing companies/interests. Social networks know about confirmation bias so they will only show a person what they want to see so they keep coming back. Nobody around me ever sees the truth and the good policies of the dems. They complain about this or that and how it's the dems fault when it's the right who hasn't done anything to make their lives better.

 

[WelshBloke]

Don't knock it till you've tried it. Moving to the south was the best decision I ever made. Fyi, I've only seen one Trump flag around here in the last year and a half, American flags are common.

I guess that the point is if the state being republican is adding to the things you like there or taking away from it.
Would the place be better if it was solidly Democratic?

 

[nakedfrog]

I believe all the local newspapers, radio and tv in most red states are owned by right-wing companies/interests. Social networks know about confirmation bias so they will only show a person what they want to see so they keep coming back. Nobody around me ever sees the truth and the good policies of the dems. They complain about this or that and how it's the dems fault when it's the right who hasn't done anything to make their lives better.

Sinclair owns outlets in blue states too. Hurray for deregulation, huh?

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Red in terms of basic conservatism I can understand (small government, big military, cautious on social issues). It's the particular strain of conservatism today that makes it baffling. The sheer unquestioning devotion to Trump; the xenophobia; the anti-intellectualism and even contrarianism (whatever you're for, I'm against).

It's always been that. Racism didn't die when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The fact that the way we elect our president was designed specifically to give slave states outsized electoral influence just reinforces it.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Don't knock it till you've tried it. Moving to the south was the best decision I ever made. Fyi, I've only seen one Trump flag around here in the last year and a half, American flags are common.

I saw seven Trump flags in a ten minute drive to the grocery store an hour ago in South Texistan.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Ape is right.

I used to think growing up that nuclear weapons were the "big sticks" that the apes will destroy the world with. Now I think its social media.

Our veneer of social civilization is very thin. Covid just about unraveled things and that was a tiny blip compared to what's to come with climate change. I'll probably be gone before it crashes down, but I have kids, so it infuriates me to see assholes not only doing nothing, but denying the problem. See no evil, hear no evil, stick your head in 1955 sand.

Blows me away how many people think global warming is some librul conspiracy down here in Texas where the warming has been unreal this century. Today it's 97 on June 11th and that's a break from where it has been the last couple of weeks. In Texas August is usually way hotter than June but I remember in the 1990s when 97 was a pretty standard August temperature, not a June temperature the day after a cold front blows in.

Don't write off the nukes though, Trump could easily have us living Threads 2025.

 

[Greenman]

I guess that the point is if the state being republican is adding to the things you like there or taking away from it.
Would the place be better if it was solidly Democratic?

I don't know if it would be better or not. The area where I live seems to be very well run. The streets are kept up, city hall was very responsive when I went in with a minor issue. The fellow at the tax office hooked me up so my first year living here I was taxed on a lot instead of a home. After that my property taxes will be about 60% of normal because I'm over sixth five. There aren't any homeless people or panhandlers, there is no litter along the roads, the garbage collection department will pick up as much as I set out at no extra charge, and the public dump is free four times a month.

I guess it could be run better, but I can't think of anything I'd change given the opportunity.

 

[zinfamous]

You are apparently surrounded by people who perceive actual reality.

I don't know, man. I lived in Berkeley for several years, and this is certainly not true. ...it's just a different flavor of a skewed reality.

 

[soulcougher73]

They live in information silos of ignorance, bigotry, fear, and being good little sheeple that are easily led where the shepherd wants to lead them.

 

[Moonbeam]

I live in a town where almost nobody is registered Republican, in an extremely blue state (CA). I pay attention to the news. TFG is such a POS it's hard for me to understand why anybody would vote for him. The R party has sold its soul. They are vile, will do utterly unconscionable things for money and power. Biden's a decent man with decades of experience in service to his country.

How can there be all these red states? Why are there even swing states? It boggles my mind.

This occurred to me while reading this article, and particularly the reader comments. This link will work to get through the paywall for 14 days, i.e. until June 25, 2024:

Opinion | One Thing Everyone Is Missing About Hunter Biden’s Case

It has nothing to do with law or politics.

www.nytimes.com

Imagine for a moment you were a worthless nobody beaten back at every attempt to acquire some positive self respect in a world full of vacuum cleaners that can only suck but have nothing to give. You will quickly learn that by fucking over other people you will finally be noticed and get lots of attention because for self haters Negative attention is better than insignificance and abandonment.

These are the people who make you suffer their own inner misery. Ask yourself what you get out of your outrage at them. Is that part and parcel of your disbelief that people can be so stupid.

Their aim is to bring you down. Don’t let them bring you down to their level. They are what they are and only they can heal themselves. Don’t become a victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome if you can.